Our Team

Executive Team

• Peter Davies
  Chairman

  
  
  
  Peter Davies was the original founder of the Telextext based travel agency, Worldwide Travel, which he grew from a start-up business into a national company with an annual turnover of over £73 million. He eventually sold the business to the Virgin group where he continued as a Virgin Managing Director for 5 years. He has always been passionate about client service and started Breakwater IT in 2005 after he saw a gap in the market for a more client-focused IT business that could bring ‘bigger business’ technology into the SME marketplace.
  Because of his past experience in building a successful business, Peter wants Breakwater to align itself with forward thinking, professional companies who want to better understand how technology can help underpin their future growth. He is pleased that Breakwater is currently working with some of the best known names in the region across a wide variety of sectors but sharing a common vision of wanting to grow efficient and scalable businesses.
  Peter is currently on the panel of judges for the EDP50, a long-term initiative by the Eastern Daily Press to highlight and track rising entrepreneurs in the East Anglia region. Many of these young companies have gone on to be clients of Breakwater and it is working with some of these rising “stars of the future” that brings Peter the most pleasure.
  In his spare time Peter enjoys reading, travelling, (especially to Australia, where his wife is from) the cinema, good food and wine, occasional cycling and regularly playing tennis.
  

• Stephen Bowles
  Chief Executive Officer

  
  
  
  With over 23 years of experience in the IT industry, Stephen is responsible for developing Breakwater’s sales and delivery framework, with the goal of turning the company into the market leader in the local region. Born and raised in Norfolk and married with three children, Stephen left school, eager to experience ‘life’ and fast-track his business career by moving  to the Silicon Valley in the, USA  working with a communications company.  After gaining much experience in the States, Stephen came back to the UK to join Anglian Window’s IT Department where he had a successful and rewarding 9 year career. Stephen then relocated to Hertfordshire where he took on the role of IT Manager for the GWK Group. After overseeing the millennium transition, he joined Virgin where he was appointed as the Head of IT for Virgin TravelStore.  During this period, he successfully project managed the introduction of a new computer system greatly improving efficiency across the business. Throughout his time at Virgin, Stephen worked with many different Group companies where Stephen had exposure to many of the technologies that he now successfully brings to smaller businesses across East Anglia. He is also a   Prince2™ qualified Practitioner.

   

  In his spare time, Stephen is a keen watcher of sport (especially watching his youngest son develop his budding football career) and an avid follower of Norwich City FC.

  



Management Team

• Shaun Riches
  Operations Manager

  
  
  

  Born and raised in Norfolk working in the family retail business, Shaun then entered the IT world as a developer progressing into the technical sales and end user support for a cash register company.  He then joined a new IT Service Provider responsible for gaining SME clients in the Norfolk area delivering solutions and support.  After gaining experience working for a leading property company and creating an IT department not only responsible for internal IT support but selling and delivering services to the tenants in the properties. During his time in the property market he was responsible for designing and delivering the IT infrastructure for a new serviced office operation totalling over 1500 seats in four locations. His experience was then called on at a global marine supply company utilising his system architecture and technical expertise.

  Always embracing new technologies as they come along and moving IT from Break fix to business enablement, working with the management of businesses to deliver scalable solutions that are right for the business direction.

  In his spare time Shaun is a keen classic car enthusiast, property renovator and makes sure to spend time with his family.

  

• Kelly Hemingway
  Account Manager

  
  
  

  Kelly joined Breakwater in May 2011 as our Account Manager.  Kelly works with our existing clients to ensure the smooth running of our partnerships.  Kelly’s role also incorporates a sales function and is the first point of contact for new business enquiries.  Kelly gets involved in Marketing and Web and more recently is leading the launch of Breakwaters Telecoms division. 

  Prior to joining the Breakwater team Kelly worked in Procurement and Supply Chain for a national Glazing & Locks company for 2 years and prior to that spent 6 years with Virgin One/RBS where she had a number of roles, most recently as a Business Support Analyst that gave her a good introduction into the world of IT.
  In her spare time Kelly enjoys travel, she spent 5 months travelling around Australia after leaving RBS in 2008 and she is a keen Norwich City supporter.

  

• Alex Pooley
  Professional Services Manager

  
  
  

  Alex joined Breakwater in 2011 with over 10 years’ experience working within national businesses managing infrastructure, security, compliance and service teams.  As Professional Services Manager he heads up the team responsible for professional consulting, implementation and project management services to enable the implementation of IT Solutions across our service catalogue.  Alex holds a first class degree in Business Computing and is a PRINCE2 Practitioner.

  Outside of work Alex is a keen Norwich City follower and enjoys travel and food (both eating and cooking!).
  

  

• James Long
  Managed Services Manager

  
  
  
  James joined Breakwater at its inception in 2005 as a Technical Analyst specialising in the support of SMB infrastructure and applications. Prior to Breakwater, James spent four years working for Virgin Travelstore as a Systems Analyst, consistently delivering a number of varied, high-quality project pieces.

  With ten years of industry experience, James currently oversees Breakwater IT's Managed Service Provision comprised of Pro-active and Service Desk functions and brings an analytical, quality-focused approach to the team. He is a qualified Prince2 Practioner and is currently working towards attaining ITIL certification. In his spare time James is a keen IT hobbyist and devoted father to his two children. He is also an avid supporter of Arsenal football club.

  

• Sandra Sidney
  Finance Manager

  
  
  
  Sandra joined Breakwater as the Finance Manager in August 2009. Sandra is AAT qualified and previously worked in a variety of financial roles both in the banking and small and medium business sectors.

   

  As well as having responsibility for all aspects of the company Accounts function, Sandra’s duties also include general office administration and HR. Having worked for a number of bigger organizations in the recent past, Sandra enjoys the day to day contact with clients that working for a company like Breakwater offers her. Sandra is keen to develop long term business relationships with all the clients and make their interaction with Breakwater as efficient and pain free as possible. Her aim is to help manage the financial growth of the business as it rapidly expands over the next 2-3 years and beyond.

  



Professional Services

• Olaf Eulenstein
  Senior Application Consultant

  
  
  
  Olaf joined Breakwater in 2006 and has over 17 years experience of Software Development (inc Business Analysis and Database Architecture) after originally gaining his PhD at the University of Bonn, Germany. His PhD was in Computer Science but was underpinned by his second University course in microbiology (something which came in very useful when building a recent application for Anglia DNA in Norfolk!)

   

  Olaf is very experienced in small to large scale windows and web-based applications using a large variety of technologies, programming languages and databases. Olaf has a strong ability to perform a full development life cycle from initial system requirement analysis, to final implementation and through to the maintenance phase. Previous roles as a Development Manager and architect have strengthened a customer focused and structured approach to projects that proves invaluable in his current role.

   

  Having been very active in athletics in his younger days (representing Germany at youth level),he now plays Squash and Badminton in an attempt to keep fit.
  

• Aaron Maas
  Technical Consultant

  
  
  
  Aaron joined Breakwater late in 2009 after 10 years in the Educational IT sector and has recently has been using his offshore skills in the North Sea!
  As a Technical Consultant, he has a strong knowledge of Server operating systems and hardware, and more recently, Cisco routers and Telephony.  Together, with Alex, he implements our client projects making good use of his Prince2 skills.

  Outside of work Aaron is interested in DIY, cars (especially American ones) and watching live bands.

   

  
  
  



Managed Services

• James Irvine
  Level 3 Service Desk Professional

  
  
  

  James joined Breakwater in 2012 after working for a regional law form for the previous 10 years.  There he looked after the IT infrastrcutre as well as the demands of the end users.  James is interested in a range of technologies spanning Microsoft core products as well as open source platforms and solutions.

  In his spare time James is a Norwich City football supporter and tries to get to the local games when his season ticket friends can spare the seat!  James also volunteers for a community run radio station hosting his own show as well as teaching people how to use the studios and equipment.

  

• Paul Sparkes
  Level 3 Service Desk Professional

  
  
  
  Info coming soon...
  

• Andy Malcolm
  Level 2 Service Desk Professional

  
  
  
  Andy has a BSc in Computer Science and has worked in IT support since 1999. He has been at Breakwater since 2007. Andy’s interest in computing was first sparked when his father brought a ZX Spectrum home from work in 1982. He has previous experience as network administrator at Easton College and working within the support team at Norfolk County Council. He specialises in Windows XP, server and application support, with an in depth knowledge of customer sites and software requirements. In early 2009 he received an ITIL qualification and he is keen to achieve more accreditation in the future. Outside of work Andy has a keen interest in music, having run an indie music reviews and community website since 1997 and a small record label specialising in limited pressings of vinyl since 2003.

  

• Cory Lawson
  Level 1 Service Desk Professional

  
  
  

  Cory joined Breakwater in 2011, and has worked within the IT industry since 2009. He joins us after his tenure at Norfolk County Council, where he provided support to the nearly 400 primary & secondary schools within the county. His working history has taken him through various industries, but his focus has always been on delivering second-to-none customer service, an ethos he brings to Breakwater in exchange for the opportunity to gain further knowledge and expertise within his industry of choice.

  Cory’s interest in computers started at an early age, but the recent decision to turn his hobby into a profession has lead him to pursue qualifications from Comptia & Microsoft, with the long term goal of attaining a degree-level qualification.

  Outside of work, Cory is an active individual, playing both basketball & football and with intentions of taking up American football. He’s also fan of live entertainment, regularly trekking to the Jazz Cafe & the O2, his second & third homes respectively.
  

  

• Harriet Powell
  Level 1 Service Desk Professional

  
  
  
  Harriet started her IT career whilst studying for her A Levels. During that time she was an IT Support Teacher, as well as a Network Technician; and since then her love and ambition for new technology has grown.
  Harriet joined Breakwater in 2011 as a Level 1 Service Desk Professional; she has been in this support role before and brings to the business not only great customer service ability but also the technical experience to assist in the day-to-day running of the Service Desk.
  During her IT career to date Harriet has enjoyed many different roles within the industry varying from tutor-to-technician-to-support roles. Harriet also has had a lot of customer focus experience in many different roles; one of her favorite jobs was working for Orange on their Premier Accounts.
  Outside of work, Harriet enjoys F1, Classic car rallies, Gaming (PS3), any sport and spending quality time with her partner and stepson.
  
  

• Tim Campbell
  Kaseya Administrator

  
  
  
  After graduating from the National Diploma for IT Practitioners in 2006, Tim worked at the Norwich School of Art & Design (as it was then) allowing him to gain more experience on both Apple and Microsoft systems. After leaving there, Tim moved to May Gurney IT Dept which was a much larger and varied IT environment before joining the Service Desk team at Breakwater in November 2008.  In June of the same year Tim achieved his ITIL qualification in Service Management.

   

  Tim is a customer focused person, who is a able to assist people of a wide variety of technical abilities. Tim is currently self studying towards his MCSE certification, in the hope of other more varied certifications.

  

• Elizabeth Woodhouse-Williams
  IT Trainee

  
  
  

  Elizabeth joined Breakwater in August 2011 as an IT Trainee. She will be doing an apprenticeship with us. She joined us after a year a City College Norwich on an IT BTEC.

  Elizabeth’s interest in computers started at an early age.

  Outside of work, Elizabeth enjoys going out with friends and family, building computers, and playing alto saxophone and piano.